Comments

1
How is it that all the fantasy creatures just recently moved into LA and started upsetting the locals, when this has been the social order since the Battle of Five Armies 2,000 years ago? None of the humans can remember a time when they didn't have orc and elf ghettos in their cities. Which is it, Bright?

How come everyone recognizes the orcs as metaphorical African Americans but they don't recognize the elfish elite who control the government, the media and the banks as metaphorical 'International Jews'? How come this movie asks everyone to transcend racism against blacks, but doesn't even question antisemitism?

Also, Scientology much, Bright?
2
Also, Bright justifies the existence of racism itself: racism exists because racial difference *are real*. Elves are different. Orcs are different. They aren't just cosmetically different. They have different abilities. The genetic theories of the Nazis are treated as plausible and factual by this kind of fantasy fiction. Elves are smart. Orcs are strong. It makes sense to put them in their places.

Star Trek's "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is a far more accurate depiction of real racism: utterly trivial, meaningless differences are falsely treated as monumentally important through false social conditioning.
3
Given the creative success that Netflix has had with many of its original series I can't imagine why they'd get into the Hollywood sci-fi/comic book blockbuster business. I suppose the genre could be the pot of gold at the end of the digital rainbow, without a lot of competition, but my guess is that it was just a bad business decision, and that Bright would have been received entirely differently had it been a series rather than an event. And that Will Smith would be getting praised for going back to the small screen to do something quirky and interesting in a new medium, and Netflix would be getting even higher praise for landing him.
4
Agreed! I can't begin to pretend I could have some sort of "woke" perspective on "Bright." I just know it was a fun popcorn buddy-cop fantasy mashup hot mess and I want more. The only big mistake it made was killing off Noomi Rapace's fabulous evil sexy Elf assassin. Hopefully the Dark Lord will resurrect her for the sequel.
6
Could somebody please tell Charles that Game of Thrones has had a large black audience for several years now?

It is so sadly typical of an elderly person like Charles to say "Can you imagine it? You can't" when what he means is "Can I, Charles Mudede, imagine it? I can't. I am an aging male immigrant and I have lost whatever connection I ever had with contemporary American black youth culture."
7
Wow ... You all need to get out of your political mind prisons. Sure they did some cut and paste swap out of fantasy based cast systems vs human reality based cast systems. But in the end, there was no self-rightious lesson about race relations etc. It was a well told story using the classic Joseph Campbell style hero's journey format. Where reluctant characters rise above thier self impossed and enforced limitations to be great. Anyone looking for some allegory about race relations, missed the point..and missed a Lord of The Rings based in Modern LA. It was about Heroes. And best of all it is a well structured literary universe that should give us many more rides. If you tried to make it be more...you lost.
8
way to be an ally and a comrade charles. no "hate" for fellow comrades
9
robotslave in #6: ‘It is so sadly typical of an elderly person like Charles to say "Can you imagine it? You can't" when what he means is "Can I, Charles Mudede, imagine it? I can't. I am an aging male immigrant and I have lost whatever connection I ever had with contemporary American black youth culture."’

S . L . A . M
10
Totally agree, I personally thought it did what it was suppose to do entertain me. And that it did. Sometimes the critics just need to shut up. There paid to keep readers on there side what little they have. This movie is meant to be entertaining. It's not trying to change the world or end global warming or stop North Korea. Just entertain us. It's a fun movie. I didn't like LA LA land but it was entertaining to someone out there. Lol
11
I enjoyed it, and will watch again.
12
@10 - Sorry, to casually dismiss a story as simply "entertaining" allows you to overlook the details your are absorbing. All stories have meaning, and to ignore the stories that our culture is telling & repeating to us is to stay willfully blind. This is why there is a huge disconnect btwn 45ers and lefties (to name merely two cultural groups in the US).

@1,2 - Nice breakdown, Ph'nglui. Could you elaborate on the Scientology aspect a bit? I'm not quite seeing it.
13
I think Charles is right on the key point. This movie is just nuts. (It was great fun.) Buddy cop with gangster with elves and orcs with ...

Don't overthink this one.
14
I was left wondering: if these wands have the power to destroy the world, how is it that the world hadn't been destroyed centuries before the events of the movie? Just dumb luck?
15
I watched it. All of it. It was terrible. I feel sorry for Will Smith and his career.
16
@13,15 - IT'S A DEEP AND POIGNANT MYTH FOR OUR TIMES WITH SOCIALLY RELEVANT METAPHORS! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!?

...aaand it's also a muddled mess of signifiers. An incoherence increasingly typical of our era.
Was it written by the people behind Lost or something?
17
Piffle.
18
Robotslave - are you really as heartless and bigoted as you appear to be? Aged people count too as well as immigrants from Africa, poor people etc. What makes you so fucked up?
19
This movie is NOT a remake of Colors. What it is, clearly, is a blatant ripoff of Alien Nation, a 1988 movie starring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin. There oughtta be a lawsuit.
20
@18

I have nothing against the elderly or immigrants, but each factor is contributing to Charles' ever-more-apparent disconnection with present-day black American youth culture.

He does maintain a firm grip on the black American youth culture of 30 years ago, but then this sort of culture-slip is entirely normal for people of his advanced years.

I'm not sure whether or not that will help you understand what makes me so fucked up, let alone what makes you so fucked up. For a person posing as a champion of the elderly, you seem awfully unfamiliar with the ways in which they think and behave differently from the young.
22
Critics are foolish to believe they have the critical tools to make meaningful judgments about a movie as confounding as Bright. They just don't. I don't.


If that doesn't just summarize Mudede's role at the Stranger, I don't know what could.

Most of the joy in this film was the interplay between Edgerton ("Jakoby," the orc) and Smith ("Ward," the Will Smith), with most of the good lines going to the former. It was very much a Will Smith movie; if you enjoy his movies, you'll probably enjoy this.

For my vote, the most inventive thing in the whole film was the shootout inside the gas station, with a Subaru crashing around inside and squealing its tires like some unchained beast, as the rest of the cast battle around it.
23
@21. That’s rich coming from a poser like you.
24
Mudede clams it yet again.
25
I liked it. I would have liked it better with Nick Cage instead of Will Smith. I would also like more movies with centaur cops.

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